Sep 23 2011
Meetings, Meetings, Meetings and That is a Good Thing… Still Bursting at the Seams…
One of the more interesting parts of my job in the international students ministry is the meetings that I have the privilege of being a part of. The last two weeks I took part in several very important meetings. Among the things we met about were:
- Charting the course of a new ministry initiative for ISI in developing a new discipleship and outreach ministry strategy
- Meeting to help look at sites for our ISI national conference in June of 2012 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
- taking students furniture
- Sharing at a national conference of South Asian (Indians, Pakistanis, etc.) Christians about the possibilities for them doing ministry with international students
- Picnic meeting with our family and our friendship partner students and their friends and families from China
- Meeting with students to share the Bridge illustration.
Meeting to share at a seminary class about helping with ministry with international students- Meeting with our friends from Central Asia to discover what the Bible says
- Meeting with a staff friend in New York over the phone to encourage each other in ministry
- Meeting with a church friend about the possibility of working together on a special project
- Meeting with some seminary students who have decided to focus on serving Indians at UTA and doing some pioneer work there
- Meeting to prayer walk with a couple of people
- Meeting with a man who wants to volunteer and share about our ministry for a mobilization effort called Perspectives
- Meeting to talk and plan for Friday nights with several individuals
- Meeting with another couple to talk about how to help with international students
- Meeting with a national speaker, who wrote the book Death of a Guru on Hindu ministry
Okay, I think you get the message. Honestly, each of these things were energizing and invigorating… It reminds me that God is at work right now. Continue to pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up more people for the harvest. Also pray that he will take these that He has risen up already that He will empower them to share with the 18,000he 18,000
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Izbrano poglavje ne obstaja! Štetje svetopisemskih vrstic se za?ne z 1! Vrstica 0 ne obstaja!
WP-Bible plugin international students in the Dallas/Fort Worth Area the love and message of Christ.
The original purpose of the Friday group going to two different locations was to alleviate pressure in the homes that we meet in. There were just too many people for our homes. We are praising the Lord because while the late group is growing and developing a regular following and a level of stability, the early group is still bursting at the seams with as many as 50 people still coming. God is working in different ways in each group and he is able to touch different types of people in different ways because of the different natures of the groups. Praise the Lord. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will raise up more workers (and maybe more and bigger houses to host) Pray also that the students will still feel like while we meet at different locations, we are still “one group” following one Lord.
“All I can do is cry and pray” the facebook update of a dear Iranian student friend said right after the announcement of the results of the presidential elections in that country. Ever since then, I’ve been gripped and touch by the picture that has been unfolding, through twitter, through facebook and through the news the last few months. By now, many of us have seen some incredible, some horrific pictures of what is going on in Iran. It has been a very traumatic time for a very historically important and proud nation and people. You can imagine the feeling flying around the students “stuck” here in the face of all this.
One of the notable and special things for me about this last school year has been the much more frequent contact and good friendships God has given us with Iranian students of late. I didn’t really understand it but we have been excited. I have been impressed by the sense of openness to talking and sharing. It was almost like our friends really wanted to showcase the specialness of this nation so often demonized in our country. I was amazed to by how much our friends really wanted us to see how much freedom they had in this country that seems so restrictive to us. It has been a real blessing to us and I really feel like I’ve fallen in love with these people that God has put in our lives in a special way.
So when the elections and the subsequent events occurred it really touched my heart in a different way than usual. This distant news became about individual people… not just city names on newsprint. I’ve got a decent number of Iranian friends on facebook and right after the elections, there were so many posts, both in English and Farsi. There were pictures of what was going on at home. There was sharing of stories as they were given. Live video and photos from the streets of Tehran. It was overwhelming and at the same time refreshing. I have never seen such a groundswell of solidarity, shared grief, etc as everything these friends had back home was being put in turmoil. My heart ached. I also knew this wasn’t our fight… I knew we as Americans could do little… except “cry and pray” with our new friends, supporting them in their time of need. That has been hard. When we heard that there was going to be a candlelight vigil at UTA for the student in Iran who were killed in the violence and it happened to be on Friday night (our meeting night), we made sure Lisa could break away to be a part of it. We’ve been trying to send “neutral” but telling statements through “retweeting/forwarding” stuff we get. Still the impulse is to do more. It really breaks my heart.When I talk to many Americans, it is hard not to make a bigger deal about what is going on. Many have no touch points with this culture. For them it is a place that has had so many problems; a sad place with nameless people that have no real desire to go to. I wish they could meet our friends.
One thing for sure, we are also proud of our student friends. Proud for standing for what they believe in. And I believe it is not a coincidence that God put them in our lives right now. I believe, just as Esther in the Bible felt when she was in the ancient Persian(current Iranian) Court that she was made for “such a time as this,” so I believe that God has brought these very special friends into our lives for “such a time as this.” But it is hard watching this from where we are, having to stay neutral while loving our friends.
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